Roller type ratchet structure



Feb 5, 1952 o. 5.l BROWN 2,584,256

ROLLER TYPE EATCHET STRUCTURE Filed April 6, 1949 v 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2Snventor OREN G. BROWN Bu WHITEHEAD 8| VOGL PER 16a/.A

(Ittornegs Patented Feb.A 5, 1952 'UN l TED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2Claims.

This invention relates to means for the conr,nection and disconnectionof concentrically rotatable driving and -driven members whereby therotation o f the driven member is restrictedy to a -given direction inthe manner of a conventional ratchet means, and the invention hereinwill be referred toas a ratchet. As such, my invention may -be used inwrenches, shaft couplings, hand brakes and other devices which' requiremovement :of the driven member in a restricted direction `aslby theuseof a ratchet. However, the ratchet herein described is of a type whereinthe driving member and the driven member .are interlocked frictionallyby intermediate guided rollers.

An object of this invention'is to provide ina ratchet, of the typedescribed, improved means -yfor setting the driving and driven membersfor `interlocked movement in either direction, which means also providea neutralor unlocked position ofthe driving and driven members.

Another object of this invention lis to provide .in a ratchet,'of thetype described, improved means for instantly locking the driving anddriven Ymembers at any position of the driving member withv relation to.the driven member whenever the driving and driven members are set formove- Vment in .either direction, and, 'in such vimproved ratchet, meansfor reversing the direction of rotation.

Another objectof this invention is to provide, in such a ratchet,improved means for instantly, and with minimum torque, unlocking drivingand driven members upon reversal of movement.

With the v:foregoing and other objects `irl-view,

all of which shall more fully hereinafter appear, the inventioncomprises certain novel construc` Figure 5 is similar to Fig. 4 'butshows the Figure 8 is a sectional view taken on line 8-8 in Fig. 7.

Figure 9 is a fragmentary view of the'ringmounted journal butillustrating the use of balls. instead of rollers, as the interlockingelements.

The invention is here illustrated as embodied in a socket wrench anddescribed in terms appropriate thereto, but it will have many other usesas will be obvious to those skilled in the art. The socket wrench handleI0, illustrated in Figs. l, 2 and 3, has a cylindrical head IIcenstituting, in this embodiment, the driving member thereof, and asocket attachment I2 mounted upon a flange I3 conveniently of the samediameter as the head I I constituting, herein, the driven member. Theflat underside of the head II rests upon flange I3 to form a plane ofcontact at I4, thereby permitting constant axial relation between thehead II and flange I3 at all rotative positions of the flange withrespect to the head. In this ratchet there is also provided a shiftingspool I5 conveniently of the same diameter as the head II and preferablyknurled on the periphery for easy gripping, and a cap it thereabove,both the spool I5 and the cap I6 rotatable with the flange I3 andattached thereto by a flathead screw I'I. The underside of the shiftingspool I5 rests upon the flat upperside of the head Il to form planes ofcontact at I8 and I8', thereby permitting constant axial relationbetween the head II and the shifting spool I5 at all rotative positionsof the spool with respect 'to the head.A Likewise, there is a similarplane of contact at I9 between the shifting spool I5 and the cap I6.

The head II is provided with an orifice 2l! wherein projects a boss ZIattached to and extending above the iiange I3. While this boss isillustrated as square in cross section, it is within --the contemplationof this invention to have the and the side faces of the boss 2lconstitute the driving and driven members in'interlocked `position.

Figure 6 is an exploded View of the elements constituting sthe ratchet.

Figure 'l is a vsectional view, on an enlarged scale. takenY on line1-'1 in Fig. 1.

contacting surfaces or" the driving and driven members which areinterlocked by rollers 22 as illustrated in Fig. 5. It follows that theorifice 2U must be truly circular and carefully finished in accordancewith good machine shop practice, and preferably of hardened metal toywithstand ,55 high ccntac't stresses encountered by Vengagement withAthe rollers Y22; `likewise, -the boss -2I Vforming the head, rollersand boss. ltherollers by moving the driving member in a must be madetrue, carefully finished and of hardened material, and the rollers 22truly cylindrical, hardened and all of the same diameter; al1 of thisbeing necessary to insure eflicient and uniform contact by all rollersagainst the surfaces of the orice and boss. It may be desirable toprovide small arcuate ats 23 at the corners of the square boss 2| withthe necessary operational clearance between these flats and the wall ofthe orifice to permit adjustments and alignment of the individualrollers as driving rotation of the ratchet begins.

During operation of the wrench the rollers 22 move with the boss 2| andtheir position with respect to the boss determines the direction of thedriving rotation, this being clockwise in the illustration at Fig. 5,and would become counterclockwise were the rollers shifted to thepositions indicated by the dotted circles at Fig. 5. Moreover, a neutralposition may be desirable as ,indicated at Fig, 4, ,where there is noengagement of the rollers 22 with the boss 2| and,

therefore, no operational contact between the driving member and drivenmember. In the Yillustration atlfig. 5, engagement of the rollers 122.occurs with clockwise rotation of the driving member whenever thedriven member resists such rotation, for any clockwise movement of thehead IIl relative to theV boss 2| will cause the rollers 22 to'rotateclockwise into the wedgeshaped openings 24 formed between the surfacesof the orioe 2G and the square boss 2|, and the rollers will then beartightly against both sur- ,aces making further movement between the headIl and the boss 2| impossible unless slippage of the rollers were tooccur. However, any slippage is prevented by the selection of rollers,ofv suiiicient diameter, such that, in their wedged `position,theVangle between the surfaces of the orifice 2li,Y and square boss 2| isless than a critical wedge angle which may bef easily determined bythose skilled'inthe` art by ascertaining the coeilicient of staticfriction between the'materials Release of counter-clockwise directionwill, with the rollers in 'the position indicated at Fig. 5, cause therollers to also rotate counter-clockwise out of the wedge-shapedopenings 24 to cause disengagement of the driving and driven memberswhereby a return movement of the driving member is possible as with aconventional ratchet. This disengagement action requires little force,in fact it is virtually automatic because of the inherent elasticity ofthe materials forming head, rollers and lboss,therelease ofA stressesupon the terminationv of `clockwise movement tending to 'spring therollers out of the wedge-shaped openings 24. Y

A'Ihe vrollers'22 are mounted in journal-boxes Y25 carried by a ring 25and dependingtherefrom vto form a cage, rotatable about the common axisor the head II and boss 2 to position the cylindrical rollers'inparallel relation with the said common axis Ato ensure line contact ofthe elements of the rollers with the surfaces of the orifices 2G' andthe boss 2|, and to positively shift the rollers to clockwise,counter-clockwise driving position or to the neutral position, the ring2S being mounted upon boss 2| and aligned therewith by a cylindricalpositioning plate 2'1 on the boss 2|, the inner circular opening of thering 25 slidably and rotatably fitting the plate 21. Movement of thering 26 is eected by circular springs 28 and 28a which engage lug-2|!extending above the ring 2,6 and attached 4 thereto where, throughthis spring action, the rollers may be resiliently held in a firm butyielding contact against the surfaces of the orice 20 and boss 2| whenin operative position, thereby eliminating all slippage and holding to aminimum the initial movement between the driving and driven membersrequired to interlock the rollers.

If it should appear desirable, the rollers may be replaced by a sphereorplurality of spheres 22 as illustrated in Fig. 9, without altering theother elements or changing the function of operation, the spheres beingaligned in cages 25' carried by the ring 26 in the manner describedabove.

Springs 28 and 28a lie in groove 3| in shifting spool I5 resilientlyconnecting lug 29 with lug 30 normally opposite thereto.

Movement of the cages 25 is effected by rotation of spool I5 which movesits carried lug 30 to ,one side or, the other, thus compressing one ofthe springs28 or 280ev against lug A29 and causing lug`23 and its,carrier ring 25 and cages 25 Vto rotate.

The shifting' spool I5 is mounted upon the iiat s'urfaceofpositioningplateV 21 on boss 2|,.centeredorice 33,'of the shifting spoolI5, encircling ring 32 on boss 2|. The shifting spool is alsoconveniently providedwith concentric oiset 34 on its underside wherebyit may beconveniently seated -within annular rim 35 on the upperside ofthe head II, thereby holding the head also to the common axis. A pin 36,normal to the flat suriaceof the positioning plate 21 and carried-thereby, passes 'through arcuate slot- 31 in the shifting spool I5,thereby limiting the movement of the spool with respect to movement ofthe boss .2|, the said movement limited to the extent of the arcuateslot, conveniently proportioned to position the rollers 22 for clockwiseor counterclockwise driving rotation. The spool I5 is resiliently heldin position with respectto the boss 2| 'through a spring loaded sphere38, the .sphere 38 and spring 39 being mounted in orifice 40 in Ythespool I5, and the lower segment of the sphere Vtting" into indentations4| or 4Ia or 4Ib on the the rollers are engaged for counter-clockwiserotation. Y

This assembly isheld in position by cap I6, thereabove, provided withconcentric ring 42 which fits into centered orifice 33 of the shifting`spool to connect with the ring 32 of the boss 2|. An' ori'ce 43 is alsoprovided in this ca'p aligned withv pin 36 which extends through thearcuate slot 31of the shifting 'spool I5 and into the orice 43 therebylocking the vcap' I6 in -i'lxed relation with the boss 2|. The flat-headscrew I'I passes through centeredoriiice 44'in the cap I6 rand isthreadedin orice 45 in the ring 32 to hold the assembly together.

. T Che simplicity and desirable characteristics of this invention maybe illustrated through desorbing a typical operation as turning a nutonto a stud. NA conventional socket isplaced on the attachment I2, andover the nut. Usually, the

Vnut will turn loosely onto the stud for a short on thejstudtheshiftingfspool I5 will moveA with 'respect to thgstyd't and iffih@nietige eine clockwise direction the sphere 38 will drop intoindentation 4Ia, thereby resiliently shifting the rollers 22 to aposition for clockwise driving torque, which may be applied by ratchethandle ii) as soon as the nut is so tight that it is no longer possibleto rotate the shifting spool with the iingers. If at any time it becomesdesirable to reverse this motion, the shifting spool may be turned inthe desired direction, and if the nut is suiciently loose, it may becompletely unthreaded by turning only the shifting spool, but if not,the shifting spool will move the sphere 38 into the indentation Mbwhereupon the wrench handle may be used only to loosen the nut to apoint where the shifting spool may again be turned by the lingers. It isapparent that such action materially speeds and facilitates such operations as require ratchetI type movements, and that the naturaldirectional adjustments permit ease in using the tool.

I have illustrated and herein described many details of construction butother equivalent and alternative arrangements and structures,functioning similarly in principle, will occur to those skilled in theart and within the scope and spirit of the foregoing description and ofthe appended claims, and I am to have my protection limited in scopeonly by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A ratchet tool comprising in combination, a Il# driving member havinga circular orifice therein. a driven member having a prismatic bossrotatably positioned within said circular orifice, a circular memberbetween each face of the boss and the wall of the oriiice, a rotatablering carrying cages holding said circular members in fixed parallelinterrelation, a shifting spool rotatably carried on the end of saidboss and having outward means adapted for manual gripping and rotationof the spool, intel-relative opposed spring means connecting theshifting spool with said ring to resiliently impart rotation to saidring corresponding in direction of the rotation of the shifting spooland thereby wedge said circular members against the wall of the oriiiceand the faces of the boss, an arcuate slot in the spool, and a studupstanding from the boss and a stub upstanding from the boss andextending into said slot whereby rotation of the spool with respect tothe boss is limited by the length of the slot.

2. In the organization dened in claim 1, means for resiliently lockingthe shifting spool arcuate position with respect to the boss at thelimits fixed by the length of the slot.

@REN G. BROWN.

H EERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,163,803 Bickford Dee. 14, 19151,981,526 Rueb Nov. 30, 1934 2,153,988 Padgett Apr. ll, 1939 2,408,506Briskin et al. Oct. l, 1946

